The Hindu : National : Gujarat submits report on shootout to Centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 24, 2004

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National

Gujarat submits report on shootout to Centre

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, JUNE 23. The Gujarat Government today submitted a report to the Union Home Ministry on the June 15 encounter in which the State police gunned down four persons, including a 19-year-old Mumbai college girl. The four were allegedly on a mission to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.

The incident, over the past week, had snowballed into a major controversy with questions being raised about the claims of the Gujarat Police and the quality of evidence being offered by it in describing the four as having links with the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Congress-led Maharashtra Government last week ordered an inquiry to ascertain if the Mumbai girl, Ishrat Jahan, had any criminal record. Thane Crime Branch officials who searched Ishrat's residence in Mumbra had said that it was yet to find any evidence of the girl's links with the terrorist outfit.

Sources in the Home Ministry said the report from the Gujarat Government was received today and it was being examined by top Ministry officials. They refused to divulge the contents of the report, saying that law and order was a State subject and the Home Ministry, as a matter of routine, sought reports from State Governments on major incidents.

They declined to comment if the report would be sent to the External Affairs Ministry for approaching the Pakistan High Commission and make it accept the bodies of the two alleged Pakistani terrorists.

With the Gujarat Police claims appearing to be rather shaky and its Crime Branch requesting the Pakistani High Commission to collect the bodies of Jishan Joher and Amjadali Akbarali Rana, identified as Pakistani nationals belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit, the Home Ministry sought details of evidence gathered by the State police. The fourth person was identified as Javed Sheikh hailing from Pune.

Sources said the Gujarat Government's report dwells on ties between Javed Sheikh and Ishrat, their trips to various places and evidence of their alleged links with the Lashkar and its two operatives — Joher and Rana who were also killed in the shootout.

The National Human Rights Commission too had reminded the Gujarat Police of the Commission's guidelines on investigation of the shootout which should be carried out by a separate branch of police to ensure impartiality.

Sources said the Home Ministry wanted to "strictly evaluate'' the evidence and the claims of the Gujarat Police, particularly on the identity of the two alleged Pakistan nationals — Rana and Joher — before tendering any advice to the External Affairs Ministry in the matter of approaching the Pakistan High Commission for collecting the bodies. Also, they pointed out, the Home Ministry would have known about any alert issued by the Central intelligence agencies on the presence and the movement of Lashkar terrorists in Gujarat and other States and the plot to assassinate eminent political leaders.

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